Trailers for the hauling of completed automobiles are well known in the art. Likewise, containers or trailers for completed automobiles which are suitable for placement on railroad cars and in cargo ships are likewise well known. Moreover, covered or completely enclosed trailers or containers have commonly been used or experimented with for the transportation of completed automobiles.
Completely enclosed trailers, however, have, to date, exhibited serious shortcomings in the economical transportation of motor vehicles. Typically, such containers must be of suitable size for convenient hauling of cargo on the highways. This requirement imposes several limitations on the size and weight of the trailer, including, but not limited to, the vehicle height and the loads imposed by each axle on the road surface. Typically, no more than four automobiles have been successfully carried in an enclosed trailer suitable for transportation on the highways. Conventional tandem axle configurations result in the placement of four wheels, two on each side of the center of load of the trailer. The overall width restrictions of most roadways limit the distance between the outer surfaces of the wheels outboard located on a single axle. Each pair of inboard wheels, therefore, encroaches upon the trailer cargo area, creating limitations in the height of the interior space of the trailer available for vehicle storage.
Similarly, both open and closed vehicular trailers currently are limited to a maximum load of eight small vehicles, by the same dimensional limitations above described. Vehicles are typically stored within the confines of the trailer by driving the vehicle onto a series of movable tracks. The access restrictions imposed by the closed sides of a closed container make manual manipulation of the positions of the tracks difficult, and prior examples of this art have accepted this limitation by restricting the number of vehicles carried. Open trailers are more easily adapted to a wide variety of styles of vehicles carried as cargo, but nevertheless are unable to accommodate more than eight vehicles and do not contain mechanisms for easily balancing and adjusting the load. Likewise, open vehicles are much more prone to exposing the cargo to typical road damage from inclement weather, vandalism and theft. Furthermore, open vehicles are not easily accommodated as units of cargo for railroads and seagoing vessels.
The within invention overcomes all of the foregoing limitations by providing a completely enclosed vehicular carrier suitable for handling as a closed container as well as a highway vehicle, while accommodating a larger number of vehicles and allowing wide adjustments in the method of carrying the load through the use of remotely controlled hydraulic positioners. Hydraulically activated tailgate and tops simplify the loading process, while a series of doors allows easy access.